Reality Me

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"Murphy was an optimist!"

The other day some bizarreness slipped into my code. It made no sense. The problem could not be reproduced on the production machine but all the recent changes had not been migrated to it. I examined and tested and pulled hair out and pounded head against wall after wall. Finally, I went to the old staging server and cleaned it up, removed all the code, wiped the database, then made an exact copy of the development code and data on the staging server. Surprisingly enough, I could not reproduce the problem. On examining the development server, I noticed that the hard drive was almost out of space. Could this be a swap space problem? Doesn’t matter. This development server has done its time and needs to be retired. I need a new machine! On the positive side, I can quit chasing ghosts and start moving forward on my application again.

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Doug,
I have a serious issue with you. You tell the whole world of all of your health and family problems, yet you trash Mr. Butturini? You are not half the parent or man he is. My son went to his school at age 6 (as did I as his mother) for 4 years. He stayed in it until he earned his black belt. To this day (his is 20) he is still exhibiting the traits of a true black belt; honest, integrity, hard work ethic, respect, etc.. He also is still highly skilled in karate even though he has not been back to a karate class since he received his black belt. He was going to volunteer at JBAK after his bb, but a week after he badly broke his arm and that ended that goal. Mr. Butturini instilled more goodness in my son than anyone ever has. If you signed a contract for 3 years (or whatever), then the way I see it, you must pay for 3 years. That was your decision to pay in advance and the only person you have to blame is yourself. It’s not Mr. Butturini’s fault if your son cannot finish something he has started. My son went through a phase where he wanted to quit, but I told him he had to finish what he started. Today, with his upbringing, his schooling, the influence on his friends and their parents, etc., he is a son whom I could not be more proud of. Thanks to Mr. Butturini and his staff. I could not begin to thank them enough.

Excuse me? What does any of that have to do with hardware issues? This is not the appropriate place for this discussion. And everything that needed to be said by anyone has been said at the post titled Don’t Do Business With Jack Butturini. You should either email me at juggler@gmail.com or call me at +1-865-898-7189. Let’s do lunch and talk about it. I’ll share with you some of the more questionable experiences I had with Jack Butturini (Butterini is a common misspelling). We can talk about giving alcohol to children and how that relates to character. We’ll talk about my neighbor who also went to Martial Arts America and whose daughter quit after 6 months but is on the hook for a 37 month contract. We’ll talk about the business ethics of a business model that relies on people signing up and not attending and how that relates to a person’s character. If you actually read Don’t Do Business With Jack Butturini and its comments you’d see that I didn’t “trash Mr. Butturini” but warned people not to get involved in long term contracts for their children. I’ve re-read it three times today and still don’t see where I’m trashing Mr. Butturini.

Aw, you are going to attack my manliness! How adult of you. Is that how you demonstrate “character” to your children? You don’t know me from Jack! I think I’ll cry a river. I challenge you! Let’s do 2 things a week together for the next 6 weeks. 1) You, Tammy Miller, and I together volunteer 1 hour a week at the Fish Food Bank, the homeless shelters, or another similar activity, and 2) You, Tammy Miller, and I meet for coffee and talk for at least 30 minutes once a week. At the end of that 6 weeks, you may then pass judgment on my character and I on yours.

My son did complete what he started. He spent ¼ of his life practicing karate and achieved his blackbelt. He wanted to quit long before the end but showed the good character to complete the task. He is proud of his accomplishment and so am I.

I am still honoring my contract with Jack Butturini. However, if you would or someone else would like to assume it (the contract is fully transferable), there are 7 more months on it at $175/mth. I make sure that any parent I meet knows to avoid any karate school that requires you to get locked into a long term contract. Karate is not for every child and is not a negative reflection on the child nor the parent if they quit. If you put your child into baseball and after trying it the child declared, “this is not for me” would you say “no, you will do 4 years of baseball!”

And btw, values, morals, integrity, goodness, etc are not imparted on a child by a karate teacher they see twice a week. Those values come from the parents.

One final thing, you bring up health issues and family problems? We are an incredibly healthy family. We rarely use antibotics and see very little sickness. Yes, I’m on some high blood pressure medicine now but isn’t everybody? The medical profession has really lowered the bar for what deems blood pressure high as to prevent a problem before it arises. Problems? We don’t have any more problems than you do. We are a happy family that laughs and enjoys life. The tiny glimpse we share with you here is like looking through the keyhole of a door. You want the whole picture? Come meet us. I don’t put on a facade. I’m human and fallible. I’ve met an incredible number of good people through Reality Me and wouldn’t take it back for anything. Read Why I Blog if you to understand my writings.

Wow! All that over my comments? Must have struck a nerve. Bottom line: Mr. Butturini did not trick you into signing a contract. I’m sure he explained it to you in detail, as he did to us. We make the commitment as a family. It just sounds like you underestimated the length and cost of the contract. A contract is a contract. You sign it and you honor it. This smacks of the current administration wanting the responsible mortgage payers to also pay for the irresponsible mortgage non-payers. Let’s all take responsibility for our actions. Figuring out what a three year contract is going to cost is simple arithmetic. You sound like a really nice family man. I think that’s awesome. I just hate to hear someone go out of their way to hurt Mr. Butturini’s business when he is such an awesome person.

Tammy I closed the comments on the Butturini because all was said that needed to be said in a public forum. This has NOTHING to do with my contract. I’m paying as I am contractually obligated unless someone wants to assume my contact which is fully transferable. This has nothing to do with the cost although I do not enjoy throwing money out the window. My post Don’t Do Business With Jack Butturini was to warn parents off of a business practice that I disagree with. Just like a health club that locks you into a long term contract, karate studios that use long term contracts hoping that people’s children will drop out and they will be able to collect fees for services they are no longer rendering. They lure parents in by providing children a free month, then let them have a short time without a contract to really get hooked, then they pop the long term contract on you. The child looks up all droopy eyed having established a routine, friends, and begun a practice which at that point does not make sense to turn away from because you’ll break the child’s spirit. I am not out to hurt Mr. Butturini or other karate studios using this technique. I simply want to warn parents, like my neighbor whose young child quit Butturini’s Martial Arts America before the first year of the contract was complete, not to get into long term contracts for activities with their young children.

I agree that the Butturini’s are scam artists!! They will not only refuse to let you out of your contract for valid reasons but they will renew it without your consent. Mr. Butturini has said point blank that he is the best martial arts expert in Knoxville and that his school is hands down the best. If you read his numerous blogs he will publicly trash other schools and post comments on sites such as this and the Knox News site under another name. Real man hey!! Hey has a website where you can get your black belt online without ever going to a class. I have little to no respect for this man and thing he is a disgrace to all martial artists and did you know that most of the fights his son has “won” were set up by him and he had complete control over,refusing to let competent people fight him for fear of him losing. What a respectable man. Just google him and read his bankruptcy papers(posted through Knox News)and see how he cries that he is broke but yet he has built a brand new house on the lake and has a new boat!!! This after he suckered his son into buying a house in Robert’s name and letting him live there for free, he has a problem with alcohol as well!! These are the facts and I apologize for using your innocent site to vent but I know more about this man than you can imagine and if it all came out I would need a blog of my own,this will be online soon!!!

The conversation about not committing your children to long term contracts was closed long ago. This conversation has nothing to do with “Coding Horror Appears To Be Hardware” and I’m closing the commenting. Tammy Miller, The Truth and Jack Butturini kindly take your discussion somewhere else.